A brand new Aston Martin called DB10 will star in the next James Bond movie. Director Sam Mendes introduced the new Aston DB10 as ‘the first cast member’ at a live event at Pinewood Studios; he also revealed the name of the new 007 film – previously known as ‘Bond 24’ – at the event: SPECTRE.

SPECTRE, as hardcore Bond fans will already know, stands for Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, and has traditionally been headed in the franchise by super villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. But we’ll come back to this: what about the car?

New Aston Martin DB10: first official details

Speaking on stage at Pinewood Studios, Mendes revealed that the 007 production team and Aston Martin had ‘worked together’ on the new car, before whipping the covers off a sleek two-door coupe.

Aston has now confirmed that the DB10 was 'developed specifically for the film', and will be built by the in-house design and engineering teams. Aston Martin chief creative officer Marek Reichman led the design team, which worked closely with Mendes 'to create the ultimate car for the world's most famous spy'.

Will I be able to buy Bond's new Aston?

To be clear, this DB10 is not a true successor to the existing DB9 model. Rather it gives the clearest indication yet of Aston's future design direction - the next generation of Astons proper will be influenced by this car.

Aston has announced it will be building 10 examples of the Bond DB10 in total, but all of them are destined for the film production. So no other well-heeled not-so-secret agents will be getting behind the wheel, no matter how much money they've got.

That's the official line, anyway. However, do note that the film is set to be released around the time we're excepting Aston to unveil the real DB9 replacement, which is set to go on sale in 2016.

CAR reported back in April 2014 that the DB9 successor was 'virtually complete', and frankly even Aston isn't mad enough to miss out on the marketing opportunity that is the world's biggest film franchise. It might tone down the wheelarch treatment for the real world, but expect the new car to look very similar to 007's new ride.

Other intel on the upcoming model includes its continuing use of the aluminium VH architecture - albeit in much updated form - while power is set to come from a twin-turbocharged V12 of as yet unconfirmed parentage. The DB9 replacement may also get the Mercedes-AMG 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that's coming to lesser Astons; it's also certain to use a Mercedes electronics package in place of existing systems.

Anything particularly significant about the timing of the DB10 announcement?

News of 007's new DB10 comes in the 50th year of Aston Martin's association with James Bond, half a century after the DB5 first appeared in the film franchise (and don't bet against it appearing again this time, in spite of its violent death at the end of Skyfall).

Aston Martin CEO, Dr Andy Palmer:

'In the same year that we celebrate our 50-year anniversary with 007, it seems doubly fitting that today we unveiled this wonderful new sports car created especially for James Bond.'

Aston also says the DB10 showcases its ability to deliver small-scale bespoke production runs. Which may well be of interest to other intelligence agencies around the world.

Any more info about the film, then?

The 24th James Bond film, SPECTRE, is due for general cinema release on 6 November 2015 - which means the production team had better get a move on as Mendes also announced that they only start shooting the thing on Monday 8 December 2014. We can't imagine a 007 epic is the work of a moment.

As with the previous three movies, Bond himself will be played by Daniel Craig. There are a number of returning faces in the supporting cast as well, with Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as Q and Rory Kinnear as Tanner. New faces include Andrew Scott (Derby), Dave Bautista (Mr Hinks), Monica Bellucci (Lucia Sciarra), Lea Saydoux (Madeline Swan) and Christoph Waltz. Waltz's character name wasn't announced, but he seems a good bet to resurrect Blofeld.

As for the plot, all we know so far is this: 'A cryptic message from Bond's past sends him in a trail to uncover a sinister organisation. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.'